


a smooth endoplasmic reticulum

by Kittywu



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: I am so sorry, I tried to be funny, KuroTsuki Week, M/M, bio major! tsukki, biopsychology au, prompt: college, psychology major! kuroo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-11
Updated: 2015-07-11
Packaged: 2018-04-08 19:09:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4316358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kittywu/pseuds/Kittywu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kuroo is living through his personal hell, Tsukishima tries to help him out and Kuroo is not smooth.<br/>Or: AU in which Kuroo is a desperate psychology major and Tsukki his personal miracle in form of a biology major.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a smooth endoplasmic reticulum

**Author's Note:**

> i have no explanation for this. i can't believe i wrote this. 
> 
> but be glad, the working titles were "welcome to bio hell" and "my biological romance".

Kuroo was crying. His sobs were muffled by the notes he pressed his face into, but actual tears were running down his face.

His sobs were mostly theatrical though, but he had felt the actual need to cry. And the need to throw his notes out of the window or maybe burn them. But he couldn’t do that, he had an exam to pass in two weeks and there was no way to do that without his notes. He wasn’t even sure if he could it with them.

“Are you ok?” a bewildered Kenma stood behind him and Kuroo wasn’t sure how much of his spontaneous outburst his best friend and flatmate had witnessed.

“Dying,” he said, face still pressed into a mountain of paper.

“Do you need anything?”

“A miracle probably,” Kuroo answered and sighed.

“I can’t help with that, I’m sorry.”

Kuroo expected the other to quietly leave the room now, so that he could return to his personal hell in form of a textbook and a plethora of confusing notes that went by the label of “biopsychology”- mandatory for him as a psychology major and the biggest pain in the ass he had ever seen.

“I think they made a mistake here. It shouldn’t be mandatory, it should be purgatory.”

Kenma stared at him for a few seconds and did leave in the end, but stopped right before he opened the door. “You know, I think a friend of Shouyo is a biology major.”

\--

It had sounded like a great idea, a biology major was the closest to a miracle he could get, maybe this friend could help him to at least pass the exam. He had given up all hope of passing it with a good grade, it had taken him some time, being an ambitious student, but given the fact that his understanding of biopsychology was still very limited and the time he had left until the exam even more, he was at peace with the thought of accepting a bad grade if that meant that he would never have to deal with that class again.

Turned out that this friend of a friend of Kenma wasn’t exactly a friend of Kenma’s friend, and that he wasn’t exactly amused about the idea of helping him to pass his biopsychology exam.

“Why should I?” the voice said through the phone, Kuroo wasn’t aware that someone could sound bored and offended at the same time, but this guy apparently could.

“Because you are a good human being?” he said pleadingly.

The other grunted in response.

“Because I will invite you for lunch?” he said and as there was no sign of his offer being accepted, he added “for a week?”

“That is still a rather weak offer,” the other said, now sounded slightly less offended.

“I’ll pay for your lunch and your coffee for a week?”

“Now we are negotiating. Lunch and coffee for a week and you’ll take me to see Jurassic World.”

\--

Tsukishima, the “friend” of Kenma’s friend, was a tall, lanky guy with blond hair and glasses. He didn’t smile as he greeted Kuroo, he just took his coffee with a short “Thank you” and gave him an expecting look as Kuroo sat down next to him.

“So what is your issue?” he asked and pushed his glasses up with his middle finger.

“Honestly? Everything.”

“Everything?”

“Everything.”

Tsukishima sighed and took his notes. He scanned the content of them, furrowed his brow a few times and put the binder back down onto the library table. “Really everything?”

“Unfortunately, yes. I have not the slightest idea of biopsychology.”

“Didn’t you say you only have two weeks left until your exam?” the other said, slightly shocked. He looked actually pretty handsome, his skin was clear and his lashes were long.

Kuroo scratched the back of his neck and felt the overwhelming urge to cry once again. “Yes. And this is why I am so desperate.”

“So then let’s start with something easy. What do you know already?” Tsukishima tried to look friendly and encouraging, but it actually looked more like he pitied Kuroo. Good first impression, he thought to himself.

“Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell,” he answered with more excitement than necessary.

“Good. And what does that mean?”

“Actually, I have no idea. I just know this meme about that and I hoped it might be relevant.”

Tsukishima looked at him, first surprised and then trying to supress his laughter. He couldn’t though as he realized that Kuroo was completely serious about that. It was cute, a bit sharp maybe, but his face seemed softer and a bit more boyish when he was laughing.

“It means the mitochondria generates adenosine triphosphate, the main energy source of the cell.”

Kuroo squinted his eyes, took his pencil and tapped it on his nose. “Wait, is that this ATP stuff?”

\--

Kuroo sat at his desk that evening, looking over his biopsychology notes once again. The things Tsukishima had explained actually made more sense to him now, and there was finally some form of positive association with cell organelles, action potentials and synapsis.

His personal miracle was cute, too cute for him to embarrass himself with his absolute lack of understanding of his least favourite subject.

“1 am is a good time to watch biology videos on youtube,” he said to himself as he opened his laptop.

\--

They met in a café this time, in front of them two cups of coffee, a muffin and a strawberry shortcake (that Kuroo had insisted on paying, even though it wasn’t part of their deal) and of course, a textbook and his notes on genetics.

“I don’t really understand this neurotransmitter thing, honestly. This is bullshit. Bio is _garbage_ to me.”

The biology videos on youtube had only helped so much, he had understood what they had been talking about in the ones on topics that Tsukishima had already explained to him, the rest of them could have been in a foreign language and it would have probably understood as much. And now he tried his best not to look stupid in front of this guy that made studying somehow pleasant and that had already found his way into his dream – truth be told, he had been a mitochondrion and he himself had been a neuron, but the fact that he had dreamed about Tsukishima counted, right?

“At least it’s biodegradable,” Tsukishima said with a completely straight face and took a sip from his coffee.

Kuroo looked him in the eyes, not sure if he should believe what the other had just said. And after a few seconds that it took his cortex to process that, yes, he had just said that, he burst out with laughter.

“It wasn’t even that funny,” he said while Kuroo wiped tears from his eyes. “You’re completely done with biopsychology, aren’t you?”

“Absolutely and completely.”

\--

**From: Tsukki ~  
Let’s look at genetics tomorrow. Or is that a lost cause?**

**To: Tsukki ~  
It’s never a lost cause with you  <3**

**From: Tsukki ~  
I take that as a compliment.**

**To: Tsukki ~  
It was :3 I think I kinda get the stuff you explained to me now !! o3o**

**From: Tsukki ~  
I’m glad to hear that. So then tomorrow again?**

**To: Tsukki ~  
Yes ^w^ btw Tsukki? ;)**

**From: Tsukki ~  
Yes, Kuroo?**

**To: Tsukki ~  
If I were an endoplasmic reticulum, how would you want me: rough or smooth? ;) :3c**

**From: Tsukki ~  
Kuroo, you’ve never been smooth in the first place.**

**\--**

Kuroo liked the fact that Tsukishima always smiled a little bit when he understood something. He also liked how he gave him a pat on the shoulder when he was close to crying because the protein biosynthesis was still not making any sense to him.

“Again, so the ribosomes translate the code of the mRNA into amino acids. And those amino acids form a protein,” he said, probably for the eleventh time now.

“But why do they do that? Why don’t the amino acids connect themselves? Why do you need the mRNA and the ribosomes?” Kuroo looked at Tsukishima, he was close to crying or smashing his head against the desk because he didn’t have much time left to get all this into his head and Tsukishima probably thought he had as many brain cells as a piece of toast.

“The DNA is like the instruction, it decides which amino acids the tRNA carries to the ribosomes and in which order they are connected. So without the DNA there would be no information on how the proteins should be built. Kind of like if you buy a shelf at IKEA and throw the instructions out. You’d just get frustration and if you’re lucky an ugly shelf.”

Kuroo smiled, the other never actually intended to be funny, and Kuroo wasn’t sure if he found him so funny because he actually was or because he liked him.

“But wait, I thought the ribosomes translate the mRNA? What’s the difference between DNA, mRNA and tRNA?” he teared at his black bedhead, ready to tear his hair out completely if this would be continuing like that. “God, why is this so confusing?”

He this time got a pat on his back and a smile that was probably 50% genuine and 50% pitiful, a sigh and an explanation. “DNA is your genetic code. mRNA is a copy of that which is made in the process of the protein biosynthesis. It’s basically a series of the complementary bases of the DNA, except for the fact that Adenine gets paired with Uracil instead of Thymine. And the tRNA carries amino acids to the ribosomes.”

He let that sink in, thought about it and put his head onto the desk. “How can you deal with me, seriously? You must think I’m stupid.”

The other looked into another direction suddenly, pushed his glasses up with his hand and then moved his hand to scratch the skin behind his earlobe. “I don’t really know, actually, I’m not a good tutor. People always tell me that I’m incredibly inpatient.”

Kuroo looked at him in surprise, thinking about all the times he had explained the most basic stuff to him over and over again. Then he gently nudged his shoulder. “No way, you’re the most patient tutor I’ve ever seen! Thank you, really.”

He wasn’t sure of it, but Tsukishima’s face looked slightly reddish. His own felt like that too. “No problem, I guess,” he muttered.

“Hey, Tsukki?” he said with another playful nudge to his shoulder.

“What?”

“I wish I was Adenine so I could get paired with U.”

\--

**From: Tsukki <3  
Good luck on your exam. **

**To: Tsukki <3  
Thank you!! :***

**From: Tsukki <3  
I hope you don’t fail. I don’t want to have to tutor you next semester again. **

**To: Tsukki <3  
No way, you were such a good tutor!! ^w^**

**To: Tsukki <3  
But I wouldn’t mind getting some more tutoring sessions with you ;) **

**From: Tsukki <3  
Please, no. **

**To: Tsukki <3  
You’re so mean :(**

**From: Tsukki <3  
You still have to take me to see Jurassic World though. **

**To: Tsukki <3  
Oh!! I forgot about that >~< But sure!! Deal is deal :3 **

**From: Tsukki <3  
Is next weekend ok for you?**

**To: Tsukki <3  
Yes <3 **

**To: Tsukki <3  
Wait, is this a date? @.@ **

**From: Tsukki <3  
Maybe. **

**From: Tsukki <3  
If you want it to be one. **

**Author's Note:**

> in case you were wondering where the inspiration for this fic came from: let's call it real life experiences with bio hell.
> 
> wish me luck, my biopsychology exam is on monday.


End file.
